Pieces
of the PastArtifacts,
Documents, and Primary Sources
from Letchworth Park History

The
Burning of the Portage Bridge

In
the early morning hours of Thursday, May 6th, 1875, the great
wooden railroad bridge at Portage was destroyed in a tremendous
fire. Although the news of the disaster spread throughout Western
New York, it wasn't until Saturday morning that an eyewitness
report was printed in the Buffalo Courier. The report was written
William Pryor Letchworth, who arose to watch the spectacle from
the porch of the Glen Iris. (Please note that the articlestates that the episode began on Tuesday, but it was actually Wednesday, May 5th. It was discovered after midnight on what was Thursday, May 6th.)

The
following is Mr Letchworth's account, as it appeared in the Buffalo
Courier on May 8, 1875. The image shows the actual headlines
as they appeared in the Courier.

Portage
Bridge.

Its destruction
as Described by an Eye-witness

A Brilliant
Conflagration and a

Realistic
Account of it

Correspondence
of the Buffalo Courier
Portageville, May 7, 1875

You have already
chronicled the destruction of the Portage Bridge, but a few facts
not reported may be read with interest.

The last train
that crossed Portage Bridge on Tuesday night last going west was
a passenger train and passed over at 10.40. The watchman, William
T. Davis, followed the train over to the west end of the bridge,
as was customary, and returned, finding everything all right.
A few minutes after midnight he left the bridge, his time of watch
having expired, and went down to Portage village to the house
of Mr. Abbott a relative of his. Before entering the house he
was able to take in a view of all the west end of the bridge,
and looking in that direction he saw no lights but those of the
usual signals. He thinks his last look at the bridge was about
a quarter to one o'clock. The next train that crossed was also
a passenger train going east, and passed over at 12.50 A M. The
watchman, Pardon Earle, states that he was at the east end of
the bridge when the rain passed; that he crossed the bridge to
the west end immediately thereafter, and returned nearly to the
east end, when looking west, he

SAW A SMALL
BLAZE

In the decking
of the bridge, not far from the west end. He returned to it and
endeavoring to stamp it out with his feet broke a hole through
the deck of the bridge. The floor broke through so easily that
he concluded the fire must have come from under the deck or uppermost
covering of the bridge. He immediately ran to the west end to
get in the truss work under the deck where a quantity of hose
was kept as a protection against fire. A quantity of hose was
likewise kept at the east end. He found the

FIRE HAD
ATTAINED SUCH HEADWAY

That he could not
pass by it from the western extremity and he accordingly came
back across the bridge to the east end. Here he connected the
hose to the water pipe, but was unable to turn o the water, from
some defects in the cocks or in consequence of their having become
rusted from disuse during the winter. Nothing remain for him to
do but to

ALARM THE
NEIGHBORHOOD

Meantime leaving
the doomed structure to its fate. He thinks the precise time the
fire was discovered by him was 1 o'clock. A farmer living in full
view of the bridge on one of the hills near by was up during the
whole night attending a sick member of his family. At the house
last named, or a little earlier, he observed the two signal lights
at each end of the bridge as usual and what appeared to him to
be

ANOTHER
AND LARGER LIGHT?

A little below
the line of the other two, which are placed on top of the bridge
at each end. This light grew larger as he looked and he soon realized
that

THE BRIDGE
WAS ON FIRE

and the flames
rapidly spreading. The water which was supplied as a safeguard
was brought from a copious and never failing stream on the west
side in a four-inch cast-iron pipe, and was carried across the
bridge amid the truss-work supporting the track a few feet underneath
the decking. At intervals faucets were placed or attaching the
hose, of which a liberal supply has always been provided. This
water also supplies the water tanks at Portage Station, on the
east side of the Genesee, and fountains at the Cascade House.
The fire, left to itself,

EXTENDED
RAPIDLY

through the upper
truss-work and along a wooden box surrounding the water-pipe and
the light work under the main deck, the flame being fanned by
a gentle breeze blowing down the river. The light material thus
fired soon fell in heavy fragments on the frame work below. I
was aroused from sleep at ten minutes to four o'clock, and in
a few minutes was standing

UPON THE
LAWN AT GLEN IRIS,

from which point
every portion of the bridge was visible, as well as the Upper
Falls, river and Middle Falls. The spectacle presented at precisely
four o'clock was

FEARFULLY
GRAND

every timber in
the bridge seemed then to be ignited, and an open net-work of
fire was stretched across the upper end of the valley. Above the
bridge, and touching its upper line a black curtain hung down
from the sky, its lower edge belted with a murky fringe of fire.
The hoarse growl of the flames and crackling of the timbers sounded
like a hurricane approaching through the forest. At this time,
the Upper falls seemed dancing in a silver light. The water in
the river was glistening with the bright flare thrown upon it,
and the whole valley of the Glen Iris was illuminated in

TRAGIC
SPLENDOR.

Now and then could
be seen an outstanding brace dislodged and sailing flaming downward.
These huge brands would fall on the river below with a great splash.
At fifteen minutes past four the superstructure of the west end
of the bridge sank downward and the depression rolled throughout
its length to the east end like the sinking of an ocean wave.

THE WHOLE
UPPER STRUCTURE,

Including the heavy
T rails, went down with a crashing sound so terrible as it came
to our ears on the wind that it surpassed the prolonged roar of
the falling avalanches one may hear at times in spring upon the
declivities of the Wengern Alps. Timber, rails, bolts, abrading
and dislodging burning coals as they fell, crashed downward into

INDISTINGUISHABLE
RUIN.

As the stupendous
mass fell a dark red cloud intermingled with crimson flame usurped
the place of the brilliant fire lace work, and a darkened shadow
lay over the glen. The silver light reflected from the Upper Falls
was done and the foaming current

CHANGED
ITS APPEARANCE

to that of rosy
wool. Out of the huge cloud that then filled the end of the Glen,
there arose a vast and beautiful canopy of seeming gold dust.
This was lifted upward and extended from hill to hill on the right
and left, shutting out ever glimpse of the sky. The breeze wafted
the seeming sparking dust nearer to us, and as it came it grew
brighter and the particles larger and still larger, until the
whole heavens in every quarter seemed filled with falling stars.
These coals, many as large as hen's eggs, fell in the pine grove
at the Indian council house, at the further end of the Glen. They
seemed innumerable and filled the sky with inconceivable splendor.

BURNING
FRAGMENTS OF THE BRIDGE

fell all about
the upper end of the valley, covering the hillsides apparently
with steadily burning signals. At this time

A STRANGE
WEIRD LIGHT

illuminated the
river and brightened in an unearthly glare all the surroundings.
Although the main upper structure of the bridge fell at fifteen
minutes past four o'clock, lighter portions of the frame work
still remained. Through the lurid smoke glimpses of fragmentary
sections of the bridge might be seen. Forked crimson flames shot
up all along the ground line of the gulf and river bed. At the
left still brighter flames illuminated like a vast beacon the
summit of the cliff on the Livingston County side. Blazing timber
still continued to fall uninterruptedly, and the rocks, becoming
heated, exploded in loud and almost continuous bursts of sound.
These might be compared to a

RATTLING
FIRE OF MUSKETRY

except they were
much louder, sometimes resembling the discharge of artillery.
The falling and burning timers lodge between the piers, and the
water setting back on the burning mass produced strange sounds.
At twenty minutes past four the explosions of the heated rocks
blend into an almost continuous roar. At half past four o'clock,
the shower of golden sparks passing over the glen, as well as
the smoke from the burning timbers, had perceptibly diminished.
A mass of burning timber on the canal bank threw an intense glare
on the Genesee River below. A bit of blue sky was discernible
on the western side, and the wind partially lifting the curtain
of smoke revealed a blazing tower dazzling with fire. This was
the central pier of the bridge, the top still wreathed in crimson
smoke. A few minutes later it is again obscured ­ a little
later still the curtain of smoke is once more lifted,

THE TOWER
STAGGERS,

Another roar and
crash, now commingled with the explosion of bursting rocks, and
the tower sinks down into the burning mass among the stone piers,
and Portage bridge is

A THING
OF THE PAST.

Ten minutes later
might be seen the bare rock cliffs upon the west side. The whole
outline of the valley stood in a black line against the smoke
and flame. Nature in this fearful struggle had asserted herself
and this vaunted achievement of man had been melted into ashes.
Daylight revealed an inky basin at the base of the upper falls
which had been discolored by the coals. The fall itself was amber
tinted, and the river below flowed dark from discoloration of
the burning masses that it had swept down. The chasm after the
fire seems broader and deeper than before and, had we never seen
the bridge, what now remains would appear an incomprehensible
ruin.

In the Erie Railway
Guide Book will be found a particular description of the bridge.
It was commenced in the spring of 1851. The first engine passed
over it on the 16th of August, 1852. The great barbecue commemorating
the completion of the bridge took place on the 24th of the same
month.

At four o'clock
on the morning of the fire a slight rain was descending, owing
to which we are spared the recording of other disasters, as probably
the pine groves and every building in the Glen Iris Valley would
have been destroyed had the leaves of the woods and shingles of
the buildings been dry.